AbstractWe studied the effect of a water soluble derivative of fullerene C60 on the behavior of cultured neural stem/progenitor cells. Addition of 20 nM of metal fullerenolate C60 (NaFL) into the cell culture increased the population of the cells almost twice in comparison with the control and also suppressed the formation of neurospheres. The obtained data allow us to suggest that NaFL has a positive effect on the proliferative activity of neural progenitors. The water-soluble fullerene nanostructures such as NaFL promoting the proliferation of neural stem cells might have numerous beneficent applications in cell biology and biotechnology.